The First Succession Ceremony
Four faces appeared on the screen, Ye-chan's among them.
Shim Sang-rok, Kang Hae-sol, and Beom Se-hyuk — every one of them a trainee Ye-chan had already marked as a future teammate.
For Ye-chan, it was thoroughly encouraging news.
"The remaining candidates are all trainees who received benefits in the first round performance. Did those benefits affect the rankings as well? We're about to find out! The fourth-place candidate chosen by the princesses is…!"
With an exaggerated deep breath, the MC pulled a slip of paper from the envelope.
"Kang Hae-sol of AOB! Congratulations!"
Kang Hae-sol's name was called first.
He accepted the microphone with a blank expression. Ye-chan listened with genuine interest — it was the first time he had ever heard Hae-sol deliver a ranking speech.
"I'd like to thank everyone who supported me, and I'm truly grateful to the members of Rap Team 3 who worked so hard alongside me. I'll keep giving it my all."
It was a predictable speech if you wanted to call it that, but Ye-chan clapped harder and more sincerely than he had for anyone so far.
Hae-sol glanced at him and arched one eyebrow. Of course, Ye-chan didn't so much as flinch.
As if hyung could possibly understand how full my heart is right now.
"Now only three remain, and the results are truly impossible to predict."
The MC looked at the three faces reflected on the screen.
Only three leather envelopes remained before him.
"Shim Sang-rok, who took first place in every online vote except the final week. Beom Se-hyuk, who claimed the most individual votes in the first round performance. And Ha Ye-chan, the key contributor who led his team to the highest vote total in that same round. Among these three candidates — who will claim the highest seat?"
The MC paused, then lifted the envelope marked with a three.
"In third place — Shim Sang-rok of GE!"
Yes!
Listening to Sang-rok's speech, Ye-chan clenched his fist so tightly it wouldn't show on camera.
He had told himself he'd let go of ambition, but with first place right in front of him, his heart was pounding.
"Two candidates remain. Beom Se-hyuk and Ha Ye-chan. Who do you think will take first?"
Perhaps as a privilege reserved for the final two, the MC attempted an interview.
Beom Se-hyuk took the microphone first and smiled with his eyes.
"Ye-chan's been so good that, honestly, I'm not that confident — but I still want it to be me."
Ye-chan's head snapped toward him.
That's the first time I've ever heard that guy talk like he isn't sure of himself.
In Ye-chan's memory, whenever Beom Se-hyuk was asked a question like this, he always put his own name at the top with almost excessive confidence.
Antis would rage about how cocky he was, but it never stuck. Se-hyuk always proved his confidence with results.
Their eyes met, and Se-hyuk grinned playfully.
"Oh, Beom Se-hyuk — humble and yet not quite, laying out his ambitions. What about you, Ha Ye-chan?"
Mindful that a choice window might appear, Ye-chan waited a beat before lifting the microphone.
"Se-hyuk's been incredible too. The whole time we were living together, and watching the broadcasts — I was constantly impressed. Still, I want first place."
"Oh~ Neither of them is backing down!"
Apparently satisfied by an answer even more playful than Se-hyuk's, MC Andrew let out a bizarre cheer. Ye-chan thought it was a thoroughly undignified sound for a butler to make.
After carrying on for a while, the MC finally picked up the envelope marked with a one.
"Then, without further delay, we will now reveal the greatest prince chosen by the princesses. In first place…"
Every trainee's gaze in the studio locked onto the MC's mouth.
At last, those lips that had refused to open for so long parted.
"Beom Se-hyuk of Rubel Entertainment!"
A small confetti cannon went off, and Se-hyuk's smiling face filled the screen.
Se-hyuk rose from his seat and walked over to Ye-chan.
Ye-chan opened his arms and exchanged a light hug with him.
"Congratulations."
"Thanks."
After that brief exchange, Se-hyuk didn't return to his seat. He launched straight into his speech from where he stood.
Anticipating that half his face would end up on camera, Ye-chan carefully kept his expression composed. Second place was second place, and face management was face management.
Top-ranking trainees always drew heavy scrutiny from other trainees' fans and idle antis, but now that the exact order had been stamped in place by this ranking ceremony, the underhanded schemes on communities and social media would only grow more brazen than before.
Viewership and buzz are going to keep climbing, too.
Chumaf had succeeded beyond anything comparable to the eras when Ye-chan had prayed for it to fail.
Not only that — it was drawing far more attention than it had at this same point in the pre-reset timeline, when the show had already been thriving.
From the second round performance onward, when positions would be mixed, he could only imagine how much more popularity it would pull in.
Not a bad start. Ye-chan looked out at the audience with an easy mind.
"To take first place among such outstanding candidates is truly an honor. I believe it's all thanks to the princesses' support, and on every stage that remains, I will be a prince who never disappoints the princesses who have stood by me. I love you."
Se-hyuk mentioned princesses and princes as naturally as breathing, then finished his speech with a bright smile.
As Ye-chan took the microphone Se-hyuk handed him, he felt pure admiration.
He really is something else.
Even debuted idols, upon winning their first music-show trophy, often cried so hard they could barely speak. Most of them.
Surrounded by trainees who hadn't even debuted yet, Se-hyuk's innate naturalness shone all the brighter.
"Next, we'll hear from Ha Ye-chan, who took second place."
It was Ye-chan's turn.
He waited a moment in case a choice window appeared. Once again, nothing.
Quiet today, aren't we.
It felt like the calm before the storm — the kind of moment when the Status Window would spit out something completely unhinged.
He shoved the idle thoughts aside and raised the tightly gripped microphone.
With every trainee and staff member's eyes on him, Ye-chan drew a deep breath.
"Princesses, thank you for voting for me! You're definitely going to be blessed for it! Let's keep voting for me and keep getting blessed!"
Finishing the short, punchy speech, Ye-chan threw a finger heart and a wink at the camera.
No telling when it'll make me do something weird again, so I can't let my guard down. Better get the unhinged speech out of the way first.
When it came to anxiety, preparation was the best medicine.
Regardless of the murmuring from every direction, the thought that he'd reduced the dissonance with whatever choice options might pop up next left a corner of his heart quietly satisfied.
"Haha, Ha Ye-chan is always so unique! Now then, everyone — one last ranking announcement remains. Gi Tae-rang and Han Jeong-su, please come forward."
The warm atmosphere in the hall sank in an instant.
The screen that had been showing Ye-chan and Se-hyuk switched abruptly to the 48th- and 49th-place candidates, and Gi Tae-rang, seated in a D-Grade chair toward the back, rose unsteadily to his feet.
His face was corpse-pale, as though he might collapse at any second.
The other trainee, who had been sitting farther forward and thus reached the stage first, didn't look much better.
Then MC Andrew pulled a paper from the brown envelope a staff member handed him and made the announcement.
"In 48th place — Gi Tae-rang! Gi Tae-rang has been granted one more chance by the skin of his teeth!"
Before the MC even finished speaking, Tae-rang crumpled to the floor.
His legs had given out. He buried his head against his knees, and his shoulders began to shake.
He's crying.
As the camera relentlessly tracked Tae-rang's increasingly violent sobs, the 49th-place trainee was guided off the stage by staff without managing a single word of farewell.
Apparently pleased with Tae-rang's reaction, the MC beamed and patted his back.
"Gi Tae-rang, would you like to say a word to the princesses?"
"Uh, I — the last time I checked, I was in 49th place. And then when they said I was one of the 49th-place candidates earlier, I thought, oh, I'm really going home today… but… ah, I'm so, so grateful. I'll work really, really hard."
Tae-rang jerked his head up, thick tears streaming down his face as he stammered out his thanks to the viewers.
Whether he was unaware waterproof makeup existed or simply past caring, the makeup around his eyes had smeared into a disastrous black mess.
It was the kind of scene the person involved would later watch on broadcast and beat the floor in regret — but Ye-chan could feel the production staff loving every second of it.
"With that, we conclude the first Throne Succession Ceremony of Choose My Prince 99. Candidates ranked 48th and above, please collect your stored luggage and board the bus to the dormitory. Candidates ranked 49th and below — thank you so much for being with us until now."
As the MC wrapped up, the long, grueling broadcast finally came to an end.
The trainees who had been standing stiffly began to move, one by one.
"…You really worked hard."
"Hyung, hang in there!"
"I'm so sorry it turned out this way."
The silence lasted only a moment before crying broke out all around.
Trainees who knew each other gathered to comfort the eliminated and cheer on those who had made it. Ye-chan quickly scanned his surroundings.
The cameras were still rolling, so joining this warm, moving, lump-in-the-throat atmosphere would make for a good shot — he knew that. But every S-Grade trainee he'd practiced with from the start had survived, and no one from his team mission group had been eliminated either.
"Ye-chan."
A few D-Grade trainees approached him then.
Their eyes were red; clearly they'd already cried once.
"You helped us so much during theme song practice, and then we all just got wiped out like this."
"Hyung, thank you so much for back then. And seriously — do well!"
Only then did Ye-chan remember how, during the theme song filming, he had taken the lead in getting their choreography in sync.
I wasn't trying to help them, exactly. I just wanted to finish efficiently and go home.
Unaware of his true thoughts, the three of them started bickering.
"Hey, why would you say something like that at a time like this?"
"No, every time I saw him I wanted to say he was really good, but I kept missing the chance! Hyung, in my eyes you're the absolute best! You're incredible!"
"Uh, thanks."
The voice was excessively bright, as if deliberately trying to lift the mood. Feeling a little secondhand embarrassment, Ye-chan raised a hand and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Anyway, fight hard for our share too!"
"I'll vote every day!"
"…I guess I wasn't meant to be an idol. I'm leaving my dream with you. Fighting!"
Tears had already seeped into the trembling edge of that voice. It was bitter, but also relieved. The trainee even clenched his fist as he cheered Ye-chan on, and the other two scolded him for it.
"What do we do with this guy. He's leaving his dream with someone."
"Hyung, that's so corny. And if I were Ye-chan hyung, I don't think I'd particularly want your dream."
"You little—?"
The tears had stopped, but his voice was still thick with congestion.
The three of them, still noisily talking over each other, patted Ye-chan on the back and left. It was truly time to go.
Following the staff's directions, Ye-chan moved to the room where the carriers had been stored.
The luggage of the eliminated trainees had already been moved elsewhere; the room that had been packed tight with bags now had empty patches throughout.
Once the ranking ceremony filming wrapped, those who passed would head straight to the dormitory, and those who failed would go home.
The production team's determination to film the eliminated trainees dragging their large carriers away in lonely silence was on full display.
"Ye-chan, you look exhausted. Get some sleep. I'll wake you when we arrive."
"Thank you, hyung."
On the bus to the dormitory.
Shim Sang-rok, sitting beside him, insisted he wasn't sleepy and urged Ye-chan to rest. Ye-chan didn't refuse the kindness. He closed his eyes.
The feeling was strange.
At major companies, it was only natural that fierce competition left only a handful of trainees standing. But Ye-chan had always scraped together every remaining trainee from failing companies and debuted with them — he had never debuted by crushing anyone else.
He had always worked with the same members in the same group, so watching someone get eliminated like this was also a first.
The voices, nasal from crying, suddenly came back to him.
— Fight hard for our share too.
— I'll vote every day!
— I'm leaving my dream with you.
Carrying someone else's dream along with his own — it was a strange feeling.
The next morning, the trainees gathered in the auditorium and greeted one another. With half the roster eliminated, the suddenly spacious hall felt awkward.
No one said it out loud, but it clearly weighed on them.
Ye-chan did a light stretch and shook off the stray thoughts. There was no time to dwell. Moments like this demanded even sharper focus.
Soon, Main MC Andrew — dressed in his usual tailcoat without fail — welcomed them warmly.
"Welcome, prince candidates! I am truly delighted to share this third training camp with you!"
The trainees turned toward the stage as one. At last, the next performance was beginning.
Then came the words Ye-chan had been expecting.
"In this training camp, two teams will face off in a one-on-one battle using the same song."